This invention relates to an electrical connector used in an electric appliance and having a pin connector and a cable connector fitted with each other, and more particularly to an electrical connector effectively reduced in height.
A hitherto used electrical connector will be explained by referring to FIG. 5 showing a cable connector 94 in perspective view and FIG. 6 illustrating a socket connector 12 with a cable 18 and a cover 16 and a conventional strain-relief 92. The cable connector 94 is detachably fitted with a pin connector 30 (refer to FIG. 1) to form the electrical connector. As shown in FIG. 5, the cable connector 94 includes the strain-relief 92, the cable 18, the cover 16, and the socket connector 12 including socket contacts 68 held and fixed in a housing 14 (refer to FIG. 4).
As shown in FIG. 6, the cable 18 is bent 180 degrees or folded onto the cover 16 and the strain-relief 92 is then mounted in the direction shown by an arrow D onto the cable 18 to fix the cable 18 to the cover 18. Such a fixation of the cable 18 by the strain-relief 92 serves to prevent the piercing connection between conductors of the cable 18 and U-shaped slits 70 of the socket contacts 68 (refer to FIG. 4) from being subjected to forces when, for whatever reason, the cable 18 is twisted. The conventional cable connector shown in FIG. 5 has a height (H) of the order of 19.6 mm.
As described above, in order to avoid the stress concentration at the piercing connections of the socket contacts 68 of the cable connector 94, the cable 18 is folded 180 degrees onto the cover 16 and the strain-relief 92 is mounted thereon to rigidly fix the cable 18, so that the thus assembled cable connector could not comply with the imposed requirement for the reduction in height of an electrical connector which is effective to install it in a narrower space in an electric appliance. In the exemplary cable connector 94 shown in FIG. 5, the height (H) could not be less than 18 mm. Moreover, after the cable connector has been once fitted with the pin connector, it is almost impossible to remove the cable connector from the pin connector by means of fingers or even a jig, owing to the narrow space in which the connector has been located in an electrical appliance.